Media – it’s just not fair

No one would expect the British media to be impartial in conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians. But they might try a bit harder to produce honest, accurate and fair reporting.

To our national press and TV, Israel is a liberal European democracy while Palestinians are Jew-hating terrorists. Readers and viewers must be constantly reminded of this, in case they are swayed by the ghastly images from Gaza.

To make doubly sure, they report those that do support Palestine as hateful anti-Semites. The huge protests for Palestine, with usually more than 100,000 taking part, are slated as ‘hate marches’, with persistent calls on police and government to ban them.

The media associate the marches with attacks on Jewish people, though there is no evidence. Hundreds of Jews join every march and there is never any trouble between them and the marchers. In fact the opposite is true, they are often welcomed with open arms and are a consistent presence at demos.

Media support for Israel is not necessarily rooted in any commitment to the cause of a homeland for Jewish people. As with mainstream UK politics, it is a spin off from their commitment to US foreign policy, and their hatred of progressive politics.

The BBC is supposed to be different, with its claim to being the most trusted source of news in the world. On Palestine, it has been woeful.

Top management is terrified of losing public funding and kowtows to the government line. When in October 2023 ministers demanded they denounce Hamas as terrorists at every mention, the BBC agreed the face-saving formula that Hamas was “proscribed as terrorist by the UK government”, which comes to the same thing. 

Where to find fairer news and comment

Interviewees were required to condemn Hamas before being allowed to speak; statements and information by Gaza sources had to be described as from the “Hamas-controlled government’’, with the added caveat that they “cannot be independently verified”.

None of these qualifications is applied to Israel, and the BBC gives unconditional airtime to Israeli state mouthpieces, who have a long record of lies and misinformation – invariably delivered in an aggressive and offensive manner. At times BBC interviewers do treat them forcefully.

But while a few Palestinian voices can penetrate the security screening, there is hardly anything from the anti-war movement. The BBC dare not heed the millions enraged by Israeli behaviour. 

BBC editorial policy for the Middle East is under the influence of confirmed pro-Israel editors. Their identities are known and complaints are copious, but nothing has changed. 

At the high level of executive editors is Robbie Gibb, a former Tory government spokesperson. In July 2025 more than 400 media names including 111 BBC journalists called for Gibb to stand down from the board claiming conflicts of interest over Israel-Palestine reporting; and the Middle East digital editor is Raffi Berg, an open admirer of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Peter Oborne, former political editor of the Daily Telegraph and Guardian writers Owen Jones and Jonathan Cook have produced devastating exposes of BBC bias that can easily be found online.